On February 20, over 5,000 visitors flocked to the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., for Discover Engineering Family Day. The celebration featured dozens of interactive activities, from building gumdrop geodomes to experimenting with natural and nano-manufactured materials that show properties like water resistance. The activities were provided by local engineering chapters, national organizations, and museums, including the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISENet) and the National Children’s Museum, Washington, D.C. The event also included a presentation by U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Anna Lee Fisher.

Discover Engineering Family Day marked the end of this year’s Engineers Week, a global annual celebration presented by the National Engineers Week Foundation to raise public understanding and appreciation of engineers’ contributions to society. Other events included Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day and the finals for the Future City Competition.

About the image: The National Children’s Museum, Washington, D.C.,  presents Builder Bill and the Bewildering Bucket at Discover Engineering Family Day. Bill (also known as Matt Baldoni) shows kids how to construct a museum with pulleys, levers, and all sorts of machines. Photo by Christine Ruffo

On January 12–13, the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM), St. Paul, participated in a two-day symposium, “A New National Dialogue on Race,” in Washington, D.C. The event, co-sponsored by the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the Congressional Black Caucus, consisted of four panels of experts from academia, civil rights organizations, and museums, designed to look at race through the lenses of science, history, and lived experience. In the opening panel, Johnetta Cole, executive director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, urged leaders to “define their diversity vision, not focusing on what they’re against, but articulating what they’re for.”

Portions of RACE: Are We So Different?, a traveling exhibition developed by SMM in collaboration with AAA, were on display during the symposium and provided a basis for discussions. The exhibition tells the stories of race from biological, cultural, and historical points of view. Eric Jolly, president of SMM, also moderated a panel on “Racial Disparities: Are U.S. Policies Addressing or Entrenching Disadvantage?”

About the image: SMM staff members brought RACE: Are We So Different? to Capitol Hill for “A New National Dialogue on Race.” Photo by Christine Ruffo

Last week, ASTC joined 937 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15). In addition to a 200-booth exhibition, the conference featured hundreds of side events focusing on issues ranging from how climate change affects women to clean development mechanisms in developing countries.

One such event was an International Clim’Way Competition, organized by ASTC and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). ASTC brought together youth and educators from the Museum of Science, Boston; Experimentarium, Copenhagen; Cap-Sciences, Bordeaux, France; and COSI, Columbus, Ohio, to share their experiences playing Clim’Way, a free online climate change game designed by Cap-Sciences.

The science center participants discussed what they learned from the game with a panel of climate science and policy experts that included Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Walter Staveloz, ASTC; Ned Gardiner, NOAA; Eric Gorman, Cap-Sciences; David Noble, 2DegreesC; Bjørn Bedsted, Danish Board of Technology; and Hans Gubbels, Ecsite Executive Committee.

Perspectives on the game and on climate change differed from site to site, but all participants agreed on one thing: finding a solution to climate change, though difficult, is a challenge we must meet.

Photo by Ned Gardiner

How can we build greener cities? What impacts do our everyday actions have on the global climate? ASTC is inviting science centers around the world to  play Clim’City, an online game that allows players to measure how energy and development choices impact society over a 50-year period. The game encourages players to explore what works and what does not when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A delegation from ASTC will travel to the upcoming 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP15) in Copenhagen to organize an international competition around Clim’City, an online climate change game developed by Cap-Sciences, Bordeaux, France. ASTC is committed to supporting its members as they address issues of science and society, and COP15 will provide the opportunity to highlight such work on both a local and a global level. The event will stream live from the Bella Center in Copenhagen on December 14 from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.  Central European Time.

Clim’City will shine a spotlight on teens and educators from seven science centers around the world, giving them the opportunity to share what they’ve learned about climate change and to interact with a panel of climate policy and science experts, including the Deputy Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Communications Director of Climate Program office of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the science advisors for Clim’City.

Institutions wishing to join the competition can sign up on the Clim’City web site using the format “COP15InstitutionNameTeamName.” The game is appropriate for ages 15–18, and participants are welcome to play as teams or as individuals. Email kcrawford[at]astc.org by Friday, December 11, with your login information and high scores for each team. Winners will be announced during the December 14th event in Copenhagen. More information can be found on the IGLO web site.

After four days of sessions, keynotes, demonstrations, and museum visits, the 2009 ASTC Annual Conference closed with the “passing of the baton” from retiring executive director Bonnie VanDorn to new CEO Bud Rock. Rock comes to ASTC from Arizona State University, where he served as vice president for global engagement. Prior to that, he had a 25-year career at the U.S. State Department that culminated with a five-year appointment as acting assistant secretary and principal deputy assistant secretary of state responsible for oceans, environment, and science.

Following remarks from VanDorn and Rock, Lesley Lewis, outgoing ASTC president and CEO of the Ontario Science Centre, Toronto, introduced newly elected ASTC president Nancy Stueber, president and CEO of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Portland.

About the image: Bonnie VanDorn “passes the baton” of leadership to Bud Rock at the closing luncheon of the 2009 ASTC Annual Conference. Photo by Christine Ruffo